Baker Hughes To Merge With GE Oil & Gas Business In $32B Group

GE (NYSE:GE) and Baker Hughes (NYSE:BHI) said on Monday they had agreed to merge GE’s oil and gas business with Baker Hughes to create an oil and gas industry technology and services provider worth US$32 billion in combined revenue.

Under the terms of the agreement, GE would hold 62.5 percent in the new company, while Baker Hughes shareholders would get 37.5 percent of the “new” company.

Existing Baker Hughes shareholders will also receive at the closing of the transaction a special one-time dividend of US$17.50 per share and GE will contribute US$7.4 billion to fund the payment of that dividend.

The transaction is expected to close in the middle of next year, and to generate synergies of US$1.6 billion by 2020. It is also seen as adding US$0.04 to GE’s earnings per share (EPS) by 2018, and US$0.08 by 2020.

In the structure of the new company, GE will have its chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt serve as chairman of the board of directors, and GE Oil & Gas president and CEO, Lorenzo Simonelli, will serve as president and CEO. Baker Hughes chairman and CEO Martin Craighead will serve as vice chairman of the board.

The deal needs to be approved by Baker Hughes shareholders and by regulators in order to go through.

According to Bloomberg, the merger would create the world’s second-biggest oilfield services group after Schlumberger (NYSE:SLB). Baker Hughes, currently sitting pretty as the world’s number 3 oilfield services group, would overtake Halliburton Company (NYSE:HAL) in terms of sales.

It was with Halliburton that Baker Hughes had tried to merge as the crude price downturn had hit hard the oilfield services sector. Earlier this year, however, Halliburton and Baker Hughes called off the planned deal, saying they were unable to overcome federal antitrust regulators.

This merger is a tricky one. A major service provider with a major equipment maker. I don't know how many substantial equipment makers are out there but if I was a small to medium sized service firm, this merger might make me uncomfortable about equipment access.

If HAL and SLB feel likewise, I'd guess we might see some industry pushback.